3/5 ***
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (2024) is the hotly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 horror-comedy film “Beetlejuice.” The film brings back the beloved characters of Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara), and, obviously, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton). In this film, after the death of Lydia’s father, everyone returns to the original house, where Lydia’s daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), gets caught up in supernatural shenanigans. To save her daughter, Lydia reluctantly teams up with Betelgeuse.
One little part that I want to talk about is how Lydia’s father, Charles, is placed in the film. When Delia dramatically goes over Charles’ over-the-top death, it is portrayed in claymation. Then when we see him in the afterlife, he is just a torso (because he was eaten by a shark). The character was actively in the story without having his face shown. Why? Well, because the original actor, Jeffery Jones, turned out to be a creep (he was also a Lawrence alum, but we don’t talk about that). I think it’s funny that they rubbed Jones’ absence in everyone’s faces.
Overall, I think that this is a great homage to the original film. I love how Burton continued to use practical effects. I feel like if those in the land of the dead were created with CGI and not makeup, it would not feel like a “Beetlejuice” movie. Also, the humor was still wonderfully morbid, and there was a perfect number of callbacks to the original film. I personally loved the boy choir rendition of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” by Harry Belafonte. Finally, I feel like where the returning characters ended up after the events of the original movie fit who they were. Lydia stays goth and becomes a seer, Delia is still an over-the-top abstract artist, and Betelgeuse is still a scumbag. Also, Lydia and Delia were able to form a relationship with one another that is realistic to who they are as people.
I also really like that the film addressed that the events in the first film were traumatizing to Lydia. At the end of the first film, Betelgeuse tried to marry a then-teenage Lydia in order to come back to life. Obviously, being a teenager and having a gross multi-century-year-old demon trying to marry you will stick with you for a while. Whenever Lydia sees someone in black-and-white stripes, she panics at first. She then forbids Astrid from entering the attic when she finds a flier sent by Betelgeuse.
However, while I think “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is a good homage to the original, there were aspects that did not work for me. For starters, I was really sad that Barbara and Adam (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) did not return. While I understand why they didn’t, since ghosts cannot age, (except Betelgeuse apparently), I still missed them. Barbara and Adam were my favorite part of the original film, and I really liked their relationship with Lydia. Also, I feel like the plot was not structured very well. A few times there were major plot points that ended in a very unsatisfying way.
For example, how Astrid enters the land of the dead is because she is tricked by a ghost named Jeremy (Arthur Conti) to give him her life. That kicks off the entire plot, leading Lydia to team up with Betelgeuse and enter the land of the dead. It builds up this one aspect of the world, but it does not really go anywhere. When they stop Jeremy, Betelgeuse just throws him into a fiery hole and he is never seen again. Astrid is not even part of getting back at the guy who tried to kill her, she just watches it happen from across the room. The rest of the film is Lydia trying to get out of two weddings at the same time, both of which are resolved super abruptly and anticlimactically. It feels like parts of the plot were included to move the characters from point A to point B, only for the writers to not know how to resolve them.
Overall, this movie is fine. If you enjoyed the first one, I think you will still have fun with it. There is still the Tim Burton charm with amazing practical effects, macabre humor and creepy atmosphere. I just wish that the plot was a bit more polished, and I wish Barbara and Adam had returned.